ATOS protest in Croydon

Feb 19th - Outside Stephenson House, Cherry Orchard Road - ATOS Assessment Centre

As part of a national day of protest local Greens joined others outside Stephenson House. Ironically, one end of Stephenson House is a gym and the entrance is signposted with the words Fitness Club (above), and fitness (to work) is ATOS' raison d'etre..

There is a strange thing about the psychology of this country is that people intrinsically focus on those that appear to be getting away with it who are below them on the income scale, rather than the economic and political elite above them who have become even richer thanks to policies under Labour and Tories.

The solution is a Citizens Income (CI). Everyone should be given a weekly or monthly income as of right that is unconditional and unrecoverable, that allows them to enjoy at least a modest standard of living. We already have similar universal benefit - child benefit. CI could be easily started, at no extra cost, by scrapping personal income tax allowance and tax credits. The benefits to society are numerous. I found a good account of CI here.

There were some imaginative posters and placards including the one below which is the perimeter boarding of a building site further down Cherry Orchard Road.

The 'Before I die I want to________' boarding seems to be popping up all over London.

I think many went up to ATOS hq in central London because the Croydon protest was thin on the ground. Definitely more police than protesters. Those that were in attendance had a leftist slant it could be said!

I met Dave Plummer from Lewisham Green Party at the protest and he produced this rather fine video.




Further coverage here on the Croydon Guardian web site.
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Tags croydon, greenparty